Recent content by John R

Top Bar Idea I have my own way, each bar is made by taking two lengths of square timber, around 1 inch x 17 inches long, I then sandwich a strip of cut unwired foundation between the 2 pieces, total depth of 1.75 inches so that I have about 3/4 of an inch hanging below the bar for the bees to...

Hi, I live the far side of welshpool, if you are still looking for bees let me know, you can message me Cheers John

Seems to me that the morons who set fire to bees and have all that knowledge behind them that tells them it's the right thing to do need to think about why they're involving themselves with BKing in the first place. It's the sort of ignorance that turns most of our stomachs, and yes they always...

It may be that I didn't catch the queen amongst the swarm, but they certainly had a queen that ended up with them when they did settle into the last hive i put them in.

Just wanted to say that I had a swarm off one of my hives a few weeks ago and it took 4 attempts to rehouse them............had a really tough time with them tracking back to the old hive 3 times on varying days. In the end i moved the new hive to old site whilst they swarmed in a tree and it...

Just wanted to say that I had a swarm off one of my hives a few weeks ago and it took 3 attempts to rehouse them............has a really tough time with them tracking back to the old hive. In the end i moved the new hive to old site whilst they swarmed in a tree and it worked a treat. Had...

I have to agree with Oliver on this point, you just won't find this tool is up to much at all, it's just like router bits that are V' cheap, most of the time they are only good for a very limited use period. If it's all you can afford then have a play with it to see what you can get away with...

Cost of red Cedar I live in Mid wales and things here near welshpool are reasonably priced as there's not a lot of money around. I have found the best red cedar supplier is a timber yard where they buy in bulk timber, trim down, machine and also treat the wood. They also supply the big...

Making my own kit I often do the is it worth doing myself question (I'm a tight Welshman so it's built in my DNA) I believe it is worth doing it yourself. I make this call based on the fact that I don't have lots of cash, but also don't want to buy cheaper kit that ultimately I'm not happy...

air compressed Nail/stapler/pin gun I bought 1 each of the above(they run off a mini compressor for £80), from a reconditioning shop in Preston, I was doing a load of cladding so bought a Dewalt 3" nailer, £80, a 32mm staple gun,£35 a 32mm pin nailer £30. I cannot tell you the difference these...

I have bought a few sets of frames recently and wanted some feedback regarding the quality. Do people think that there are 2 grades of timber, as I bought some from 1 company and they are very light in both colour and weight, like thick balsa wood almost and they were ok to fit together but not...

That's interesting, as I do have an OMF, and on previous years I've rehoused them with solid floors OK. Definitely something I'll change as I have a solid floor spare that I can use till they settle in - if I get them when they swarm again of course. Thank you for this.

Has anyone ever heard of frame sizes as follows, I've got a lot of them and can't find their exact size anywhere listed on here or the web, they're hoffman Top bar - 44.4cm Long x 2cm wide side bars - 20cm bottom bars - 36cm I'd really appreciate it if anyone knows, they are professionally...

Interesting reading Lorrick, and it helps to hear of other peoples frustrations. I was away all day today and the wife said that they almost swarmed again, but it started raining and they stopped, so it seems like they went back into the original hive the other day. Tomorrows another day, so...

My Commercials aren't all a standard Commercial size, goodness knows why, I bought them 2nd hand and they were all I could afford at the time. They've been a pain for 3 years in terms of inter-changing frames etc. I've now got hold of some Red Cedar and have started making my own hives, the...